Lebanese police use water cannons to disperse protesters

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese security forces used water cannons and eventually fired tear gas canisters to disperse dozens of anti-government protesters who tried to get past security barricades and reach parliament.

Demonstrations over a lingering garbage crisis that has seen rubbish pile up in the streets of the capital have in recent weeks grown into a wider protest movement against an entire political class seen as corrupt and dysfunctional.

Police erected new barricades on Thursday to keep hundreds of protesters away from the parliament and government offices. By late Thursday, some protesters tried to break the security cordons, prompting authorities to use water cannons. Protesters lobbed rocks at the security forces.